The GREAT SWAMP 

FIGHT 
19th of DECEMBER 

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A Paper 

Read before the 
New York Chapter of the Colonial Order 
April nth, 1906 
By Hamilton B. Tompkins 



Printed by the Chapter 
1906 



GREAT SWAMP FIGHT 

S€ Of all the single incidents," says John Fiske, " in what 
is known as King Philip's War, the most bloody and disastrous 
to the forces, and in the numbers engaged on each side, and 
most important in its results, is what has been designated as the 
Great Swamp Fight." 

King Philip's War, as such, commenced by the attack of 
the Indians upon the inhabitants of Swanzey, Massachusetts, on 
the 24th of June, 1675, which was followed by attacks upon the 
towns of Dartmouth, Taunton and Middleborough. On the 1 5 th 
of July of the same year, the Commissioners of Massachusetts 
and Connecticut, attended by a strong military force, were sent 
to the Narragansetts to obtain new guarantees of friendship. 
They succeeded in negotiating a treaty by which the Chiefs of 
that powerful tribe agreed, for a stipulated price, to deliver to 
the English, living or dead, whatever subjects of Philip should 
come within their country, and to resist any invasion by Philip 
of their own lands or those of the English, and gave hostages 
for their fulfillment of these engagements. The Indian War 
continued, and you are familiar with the attacks upon Brookfield 
and the Connecticut River towns of Hadley, Hatfield and 
Deerfield. 



In September, the Commissioners of the United Colonies, 
Massachusetts, Plymouth and Connecticut, which formed the 
Confederacy, met at Boston, and decided to raise a thousand 
men for a defensive war ; that of this force Massachusetts was 
to furnish 527, Connecticut 315, and Plymouth 158. In 
October, the attitude of the formidable Narragansetts was re- 
garded with anxiety, as it was known that so far from keeping 
their compact made in July, they had harbored many of Philip's 
dispersed allies. Canonchet and other Chiefs came to Boston 
while the Commissioners were in session, and promised that the 
hostile Indians, whom they admitted were under their protec- 
tion, should be surrendered within ten days. The time arrived, 
but no Indians appeared. The Commissioners became alarmed: 
if the strongest and most numerous of the New England Tribes, 
the Narragansetts, were to prove faithless and should commence 
active hostilities, great, indeed, would be the peril of the Colon- 
ists. The fifth day after the breach of the treaty, the Com- 
missioners reassembled, and determined that, besides the number 
of soldiers formerly agreed upon to be raised, one thousand more 
should be provided and forwarded for service in the Narragansett 
country. Governor Winslow was appointed Chief, and the 
Colony of Connecticut was to furnish the second in command. 
Major Robert Treat was subsequently chosen for this place. The 
Commander was to put himself at the head of his forces within 
six weeks, and in the meantime "a solemn day of humiliation 
and prayer ' ' was kept throughout the Confederacy. 

In giving the notice of their action to the several General 
Courts or Colonies, the Commissioners commended e< that care 
be taken that the soldiers sent on the expedition be men of 



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courage, strength and activity, their arms well fixed and fit for 
service; that their clothing be in all respects strong and warm, 
suitable for the season; that they have provisions in their knap- 
sacks for a week's march from their rendezvous ; and also that 
there be a meet number of ministers and chirurgeons provided 
and appointed for the expedition." 

The Narragansetts were given time to make their peace by 
performing their covenants with the Commissioners, and also 
for making reparations for all damages sustained by their neglect; 
but they made no attempt to fulfill the provisions of their treaty, 
emboldened, partly, as Palfrey thinks, by the successes of the 
^ns on the Connecticut River, and also, as Mather says in 
his Brief History, "that in the Spring when having the leaves 
of the trees and swamps to be-friend them, they could destroy 
the English ;" and there is little reason to doubt but that in this 
conclusion they were largely influenced by Philip and his 
emissaries. 

Early in December, the Colonial troops commenced to 
gather. There were six companies from Massachusetts, under 
the command of Major Appleton and Captains Moseley, Gard- 
ner, Davenport, Oliver and Johnson ; from Connecticut, five 
companies, under Major Treat and Captains Seeley, Gallup, 
Mason, Watts and Marshall ; two companies from Plymouth, 
under Major Bradford and Captain Gorham. Captain Benjamin 
Church was invited by Governor Winslow to command a com- 
pany : he declined taking a commission, but promised to accom- 
pany the expedition as a volunteer. Attached to the levy from 
Connecticut were some Mohegan Indians ; but they did not 
render any substantial aid in the fight which followed. 



s 



On the 1 2th of December, most of the army arrived at 
Mr. Smith's, in Wickford, the place intended for their head- 
quarters. " Captain Moseley on his way thither," says Hub- 
bard, "had happily surprised thirty Indians, one of whom he 
took along with him as a guide, Peter by name, who, under 
some disgust with his countrymen, or his Sachem, which made 
him prove the more real friend to our forces, wherein he faith- 
fully performed what he promised ; and without his assistance 
our men would have been much at a loss to have found the 
enemy until it had been too late to have fought them. ,, Hub- 
bard, later in his narrative, mentions the services of this Peter 
as the first of the remarkable circumstances in the victory which 
ensued ; and Mather and other historians give him due credit for 
his aid. One writer has said : S€ No Englishman was ac- 
quainted with the situation of the fort and but for their pilot, 
Peter, there is very little probability they would have found it, 
much less have effected anything against it." 

On the 15th, Bull's Garrison House, in South Kingstown, 
at what is now known as Tower Hill, intended for a place of 
shelter, had been attacked by the Indians and demolished. At 
Pettaquamscutt, where shelter was also expected, it was found 
that the Indians had destroyed the buildings and butchered the 
inhabitants. 

Some of the troops were a little late, but on the 1 8th the 
various forces were united and the whole army encamped in the 
open air, the weather being cold and snowy. The next day, 
upon setting out, Captains Moseley and Davenport led the van; 
Major Appleton and Captain Oliver followed; General Winslow 
and the Plymouth forces held the centre; and the Connecticut 



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contingent brought up the rear. Captain Oliver in his account 
says: "In the morning, Dec. 19th, Lord's Day, at five o'clock, 
we marched; snow two or three feet deep and withal an extreme 
hard frost so that some of our men were frozen in their hands 
and feet and thereby disabled from service." Cotton Mather 
says in his work: {e The whole army marched away through 
cold and snow and very amazing difficulties enough to have 
damned any ordinary fortitude." The cold, severe as it was 
upon the men, proved, however, of this advantage: that it froze 
the surroundings of the fort and made its capture more feasible. 

The stronghold of the Narragansetts, fifteen miles away, 
was reached at one o'clock. This fort which the Indians had 
fortified to the best of their ability, was on a solid piece of up- 
land, encompassed by a swamp. In it were gathered according 
to the best authorities, about thirty-five hundred Indians. On 
the inner side of this natural defence they had driven rows of 
palisades, encricled about with a hedge nearly a rod in thickness ; 
and the only entrance to the enclosure was by a fallen tree or 
log; four or five feet from the ground, " this bridge being pro- 
tected by a block house right over against it, from which," says 
Hubbard, "they sorely galled our men that first went in." 

In spite of the fact the English were wearied by their long 
march through the snow, scarcely halting to refresh themselves 
with food, immediately upon arriving they commenced the onset. 
The Colonists had been so long in making their preparations that 
the Indians were well apprised of their approach and had made 
the best arrangements in their power to withstand them The 
beginning was most disastrous to the officers. Captain Johnson, 
of Roxbury, was shot dead on the bridge as he was rushing over 



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at the head of his company. Captain Davenport, of Boston, had 
succeeded in penetrating within the enclosure when he met the 
same fate. Captain Gardner, of Salem, and two of the Connecti- 
cut Captains, Gallup, of New London, and Marshall, of Wind- 
sor, were also killed outright, while Lieutenant Upham, of 
Boston, and Captain Seeley, of Stratford, received wounds which 
afterwards proved fatal. Major Bradford, of Plymouth, was 
sorely wounded, as well as Captain John Mason, of Norwich, 
and Captain Benjamin Church. 

Notwithstanding the fall of their leaders, the rank and file 
pressed on, and although the entrance was choked by the bodies 
of the slain yet, over the mangled corpses of their comrades, the 
assailants climbed the logs and breastworks in their efforts to 
penetrate the fort. Once they were beaten out, but they soon 
rallied and regained their ground. The conflict raged with 
varying success for nearly three hours. "The struggle," says 
Arnold, "on either side was one for life;" ' ' Whichever party," 
he adds, "should triumph, there was no hope for the vanquished; 
Christian and savage fought alike with the fury of fiends, and 
the sanctity of the New England Sabbath was broken by the 
yells of the savages, the roar of musketry, the clash of steel and 
all the demoniac passions which make a battle ground an earthly 
hell. ' ' The carnage was fearml ; the result was yet doubtful ; 
until an entrance to the fort was effected in the rear by the 
reserve guard of the Connecticut troops. " The Indians, who 
were all engaged at the first point of attack, were surprised and 
confused by a heavy fire behind them ; their powder was nearly 
consumed ; but their arrows continued to rain a deadly shower 
upon the charging foe. The wigwams were set on fire within 



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the fort, contrary to the earnest entreaty of Captain Church, 
T >vho, with his knowledge of military matters and the condition 
of the assailants, realized the importance of shelter and food to 
the exhausted conquerors.' ' He says in his narrative that " he 
begged them to forbear and spare the wigwams in the fort from 
fire," for, he adds, "they were all lined with baskets and tubbs 
of grain and other provisions sufficient to supply the whole army 
until Spring, and every wounded man might have a good warm 
house to lodge in, which otherways would necessarily perish 
with the storm and cold, and, moreover, that the army had no 
other provisions to trust unto or depend upon ; that he knew the 
Plymouth forces had not so much as a biscake left, for he had 
seen their last dealt out." " Humanity and policy alike," con- 
tinues Arnold, "sustained the advice of the gallant Church, but 
it was too late. The infuriated Colonists had already com- 
menced the work of destruction ; in a few minutes the frail 
material of five hundred Indian dwellings furnished the funeral 
pyre of the wounded and dying ; the blazing homes of the 
Narragansetts lighted their path to death." 

More than a thousand of the enemy perished. The Eng- 
lish lost, in killed and wounded, according to Hubbard, over 
two hundred ; and other accounts place the numbers still higher. 
A large proportion of these might have been saved if the advice 
of Church had been followed. When night fell there was no 
shelter or provisions for the conquerors or conquered. The 
Indians escaped to an open cedar swamp in the neighborhood, 
where many perished for want of food or covering. " The fate 
of the English," says Rhode Island's historian, "was no better. 
They had taken a weary march of fifteen miles since daybreak, 



9 



without halting for food, and had spent the remainder of the day 
in desperate combat. They had now to retrace their steps in 
the dark, through a dense forest, with a deep snow beneath 
their feet and a December storm howling about their heads. 
By the glare of the burning wigwams they formed their line of 
march back to Wickford, bearing with them their dead and 
wounded," a march, says Cotton Mather, " made through 
hardships than an whole age could not parallel." It was two 
o'clock before they reached the camping ground. The cold 
was severe ; many died on the way ; the limbs of the wounded 
were stiffened ; and fatigue had disabled most of the remainder. 
There was no shelter or provisions of any sort, and when morn- 
ing dawned it was found that death had done a melancholy 
work. The heavy storm during the night had wrapped many 
a brave soldier in his winding sheet, and the depth of the new 
fallen snow made it difficult for the survivors, in their weak con- 
dition, even to move. Captain Church truthfully says in his 
narrative : " Having burned up all the houses and provisions 
in the fort, the army returned the same night in the storm and 
cold, and I suppose that every one that is acquainted with that 
night most deeply laments the miseries that attended them, 
especially the wounded and dying men. But it mercifully came 
to pass that Captain Andrew Belcher arrived at Mr. Smith's 
from Boston with a vessel laden with provisions for the army, 
who must otherwise have perished for want." 

After the Great Swamp Fight the sick and wounded were 
carried to the Island of Rhode Island, where they were cared 
for by the people of Portsmouth and Newport. 

The propriety of a winter campaign on the part of the 

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Colonists might be questioned ; but, by delay, opportunity 
would have been given to the Indians to make greater prepara- 
tions, and this was to be considered. Cotton Mather, who 
saw the Providence of God in every undertaking, says : " Had 
the assault been deferred one day longer, there fell such a storm 
of snow that for divers weeks it must have been impracticable, 
and at the end of those weeks there came so violent and unusual 
a thaw as to have made the way to the fort impassable. " Just 
now," he says, "was the time for the work, and the work 
was accomplished." 

This virtually ended the expedition and the " Great Swamp 
Fight," most memorable in New England History and the 
annals of the early Colonists. The power of the Narragansetts 
was irretrievably broken ; the suvivors returned the next day to 
their smouldering and ruined fort, and found some provisions to 
ameliorate their starving condition. It was fortunate that the 
Indians had been too dazed by their defeat to pursue their re- 
treating foes or the remnant of the English army would have 
been destroyed ; and this course, says Mather, had been advised 
by some of the leaders of the Narragansetts. 

Although fought upon her own soil and a great sufferer, 
yet Rhode Island, as such, took no part in the expedition. 
The enterprise was undertaken by the so-called Confederacy, of 
which Rhode Island was not a member. The religious freedom 
of that Colony caused her to be regarded with suspicion by 
the other governments, and she was left out of their union. 
Neither was the consent of Rhode Island asked to invade her 
territory for the purpose in hand, which was a violation of her 
Charter and a disregard of the rights of a sister Colony. The 



ii 



Commissioners of the Confederacy averred that the Narragan- 
setts had proved treacherous, but the General Assembly of Rhode 
Island believed the war unnecessary. In a letter to the Con- 
necticut authorities the following year, they claimed " that the 
Narragansetts were subjects of His Majesty the King, and put 
under the government of Rhode Island, and that there had been 
no manifestation of war against us from them till by the United 
Colonies they were forced to war or to such submission as it 
seems they could not subject themselves to, thereby involving us 
in such hazards, charges and losses which have fallen upon us 
in our plantations that no Colony has received the like, con- 
sidering our numbers and people.' 9 But notwithstanding this 
assertion on the part of the General Assembly, it can hardly be 
conceived that the Narragansetts would have remained quiet 
under the circumstances, stirred up, as they were, by the 
machinations and persuasions of King Philip ; and if they had 
not been subdued at this time still greater must have been the 
sufferings of Rhode Island. 

In view of the murders and depredations which had been 
committed, it is quite probable that many recruits from Rhode 
Island joined in the expedition ; but as they did not go as an 
organized force, it is impossible to ascertain the exact numbers. 

After their disastrous defeat, we hear of but little more of 
the Narragansetts. The remainder submitted the following 
year, and gradually diminishing in numbers, they never again 
became formidable as a race, or offered any organized resistance 
to the Colonists. 



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